Email Author Dennis Brown

2011 Stories by Dennis Brown

• Midnight Specialty: The Black Rep puts a twist on the Lead Belly legend with Black Pearl Sings!

  published April 28, 2011

  In the 1930s, musicologist John Lomax, working on behalf of the Library of Congress, traveled throughout rural America — and especially... More >>

• Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing! does precisely that

  published April 28, 2011

  Sam Feinschreiber is having a bad day. After just one year of marriage, already his wife Hennie is treating him like dirt. "Hennie could kill... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published April 28, 2011

  Newly Reviewed More >>

• Next to Normal won 2010's Pulitzer Prize for drama, but it's a loser at the Fox

  published April 21, 2011

  As the recipient of last year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama — only the eighth musical to be so honored since that award was established in... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published April 14, 2011

  The Death of Atahualpa Derived from theater traditions as old as the medieval morality play, this sampling of Andean oral theater... More >>

• Lanford Wilson, 1937-2011: He made it to Broadway but never shed his Missouri roots

  published April 14, 2011

  The first time I met Lanford Wilson, in 1973, he was 36 years old but looked a decade younger. Already a luminary in New York's... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published April 7, 2011

  Newly Reviewed Acts of Love As the evening begins, we might think we're back on Golden Pond. Ed (Sean Ruprecht-Belt)... More >>

• Pen and Inca: Upstream Theater brings to life The Death of Atahualpa

  published April 7, 2011

  Upstream Theater can always be relied upon to deliver an evening of unconventional drama. On that score the company's current offering,... More >>

• A tribute to the dear departed Tennessee Williams reminds us that he never really went away

  published April 7, 2011

  The national media was far too busy picking over the bones of Elizabeth Taylor two weeks ago to be bothered with noting the centennial of... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published March 31, 2011

  Newly Reviewed More >>

• Sweet Mystery of Life: Frankenstein comes to the stage at the Tivoli Theatre

  published March 31, 2011

  For the past year, some of the most exciting theater in St. Louis has been delivered via a movie screen. The Tivoli Theatre has been hosting... More >>

• Bio Mess: The Real McCoy isn't

  published March 24, 2011

  Elijah McCoy was born in the mid-1840s in Ontario, Canada. He was the son of slaves who had escaped from Kentucky via the famed Underground... More >>

• The Rep's production of Beehive isn't theater. It's a cruise-ship sing-along.

  published March 24, 2011

  Normally we review theater on the Stage page. So I concede that perhaps I'm the wrong person to be commenting on Beehive The '60s... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published March 24, 2011

  Newly Reviewed More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published March 17, 2011

  Newly Reviewed Cyrano... More >>

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  Sarah Ruhl's vibrator play produces a decent buzz at the Rep

  published March 17, 2011

  It is the 1880s. Electricity has been harnessed and science is on the move. In upstate New York, a society doctor specializes in curing women... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  Repudiated upon its 1961 release by the tough-talking clergyman who inspired it, The Hoodlum Priest remains as obscure and intriguing as ever

  published March 10, 2011

  On a sweltering afternoon in August 1960, movie star Don Murray stood on a Produce Row loading dock in despair. An hour earlier, during the... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published March 3, 2011

  Macbeth In the hands of director Paul Mason Barnes, this drama about regicide and power lust is revealed as a meditation on the shadowy... More >>

• In Sirens, a clever opening scene proves to be a false alarm

  published February 24, 2011

  Sam Abrams is a one-hit wonder. Twenty-five years ago Sam, who slouches at the center of Sirens, the current offering at New... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published February 24, 2011

  Closer You might expect a play so consumed by sex to stir up a little heat, but an icicle chill permeates Patrick Marber's lacerating... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published February 17, 2011

  Newly Reviewed 9 to 5 the Musical The first 45 minutes of this stage adaptation of the 1980 movie about three female... More >>

• The Anti-Social Network: Hate the characters, love Closer

  published February 17, 2011

  Dress warmly when you go to see Patrick Marber's lacerating drama Closer, the current offering at St. Louis Actors' Studio. An... More >>

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  Round Up the Unusual Suspects: Lynn Nottage's Ruined will devastate you at the Black Rep

  published February 17, 2011

  Mama Nadi is one tough cookie. She runs a bar and brothel in a remote rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As that African... More >>

• Stray Dog mounts Distracted and screws the pooch

  published February 10, 2011

  Here's the official take, as printed in the playbill, on the current offering at Stray Dog Theatre: "Attention deficit disorder in a hyper tech... More >>

• The Price is a rarely staged Arthur Miller work that's flawed but fascinating

  published February 10, 2011

  With used furniture you cannot be emotional," a decrepit furniture dealer explains as he delays making a financial offer for family heirlooms... More >>